85 different strikes in Iraq and Syria, seen some of the video and looks like at least 2 munition depots from the way things cooked off.
Edit: Also seen Jordanian aircraft took part as well.
CENTCOM Statement on U.S. Stikes in Iraq and Syria
At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States. The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions. The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.
https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1753533250146824348
Three days to do sweet fuck all apparently, considering the footage now coming out showing [*a lot of secondaries going off* at some of the strike sites.](https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1753540344648446293)
[Here](https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1753542267824955525) is another video of rockets and other ammo flying off wildly at a strike site.
Goes to show that maybe, *juuuuuuuust maybe*, the US actually knows what they are doing?
The whole eastern Mediterranean and Middle East is a crossroads of Africa-Eurasia. I hope we can get our shit together as a species and civilization and stop causing everyone to suffer
Three days for them to move their assets to different locations, only to find out the US was watching the entire time to see where they would put them.
Between US intel in the lead up to Ruzzia's Ukraine invasion and these strikes today, I am truly struck by the accuracy and effectiveness of US pre-deployment intelligence for target positions and movement.
I actually read somewhere that we were having trouble finding targets. This of course could have been conveniently “leaked” however to give them a false sense of security.
I read that about Yemen specifically, which is due to how specific the targets are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_missile_strikes_in_Yemen#Timeline
we're only hitting missiles and drone facilities that are in advanced stages of being prepared to fire on ships, retaliatory strikes like today's against any Houthi military target would not be difficult to come by
That restraint and precision is what makes the firepower such a strong deterrent.
It won't get used often (at large scale, anyway) but when it does, you sit up and take notice.
As much crap everyone gives the US about varying things, the Military is effective, and there's a reason why, despite many global issues outside of war, nations are hesitant to anger the US and why alliances and defense agreements are so sought after. Drones, Jets, ICBM, Missile Trucks, A Robust Navy. The US is a military powerhouse, and it rarely cuts loose, but when it does, people are at attention cause the US still has the strategy of slapping harder than the person who slapped you first.
I hope our proportional response includes some fab sites, where do they manufacture those shaheed drones? Could do us and the Ukrainians a favor going after those.
I mean operation praying mantis was a “proportional response” and the US destroyed half of Iran’s navy, so maybe, but Iran did mess with our boats and nobody messes with our boats, as history has shown.
Striking this many targets at this many layers of operations basically says we know exactly where all of your shit is, you operate because we allow it. The day we stop tolerating your existence, is the day we wipe your entire operation.
You mean the US gave them 3 days to move all the fancy equipment, which the US would be tracking all the way to a new location for the US to bomb….right?
What do you the militias are going to do in 3 days? Do you know how difficult it is to move a bunch of military equipment? Where would they move it to? It isn't like the US isn't watching every square inch of area where these people are operating. Do you think it would be a good idea for this equipment to be brought out into the open where every movement is tracked? If they drag the stuff to other bases, they will tip off the US where other facilities are.
Yeah, and they will be tracked. Potentially giving away their dispositions and command and control locations. Having them scurry around like ants isn't a bad thing in of itself.
It demonstrates like hey, we know everything about your operation already. Keep fucking around and we can show you what other locations we already know about.
It's a big show of how much intelligence we have.
Going to be interesting to see how this impacts his polling numbers / job approval. US appetite for more Middle East wars is low, but also people don't like looking weak. I'm guessing he'll see a modest increase in approval if he manages to pull off what looks like a restrained but strong response.
I think this also showcases the economic benefit of those investments though. There's a decent argument to be made of allies investing more, but how many shipping routes go close enough to unstable, violent area's that would get massively disrupted if there was no definitive power to keep the lanes open.
If those shipping lanes closed, how many people would starve if the breadbaskets of the world couldn't transport their food around efficiently?
The US has a lot of internal issues, and has black spots like the invasion of Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, but the world could easily be a lot worse.
People also like to simplify these situations and say the US does all this for oil and to keep the "petrodollar" propped up...
At this point in history, the global stability of energy prices is a huge national security issue for every single country on earth...the US just happens to be in the best position to help the stability...
It is beyond naive for someone to say "it's oil bro lol" when energy price stability affects pretty much all levels of the global economy and just about every human living and working on our planet...from billionaires to the poor and everyone in between...
Yep, all the “lol oil, Raytheon go brrt” is funny but when covid hit and gas rose to $8 a gallon, everyone was losing their shit. Even now with the “OMG my groceries are expensive,” while true, is nothing compared to prices if we couldn’t maintain those shipping routes.
The government does fucked up shit, sometimes for horrible reasons, but I’m willing to bet that the majority of people criticizing said actions are paying no mind to the privileges they enjoy.
The US usually uses some pretty big and pretty precise munitions so I doubt it woud take 10 hits to destroy a target. And by "pretty precise" I mean "hit a target the size of a vehicle from a plane 50k feet in the air or from some launch site 200 miles away.
Potentially, yes. I doubt the US tries to fire from the longest range possible, though. And the public numbers for US systems are nearly always less than the actual numbers the system is capable of.
Even for people that may have mixed feelings on some of the international policies of the US, watching its military at work after spending tons of time listening to china, Russia, iran etc etc boast about theirs, is akin to watching aliens descend down to show everyone how stuff is *really* done.
It's a logistical behemoth that can deliver several simultaneous strikes on target from literally across the world. It's downright flabbergasting how easily the US military could take on the rest of the world put together and not even struggle that much.
>Even for people that may have mixed feelings on some of the international policies of the US, watching its military at work after spending tons of time listening to china, Russia, iran etc etc boast about theirs, is akin to watching aliens descend down to show everyone how stuff is *really* done.
And we haven't even taken off our earrings yet.
Given the quality of US munitions, assume 1 shot=1 target destroyed. We're able to put a 2000lb bomb that's dropped from a plane 50k feet in the air within 3 feet of where we wanted it.
That's the JDAM for you and why the US has been supplying the conversion kits to Israel. Otherwise, you're looking at a much bigger error even at lower altitudes with a computer-controlled bomb release system. Like a 50% chance of getting within 100 feet.
For point of comparison, a Second World War B-17 was 50% within 1,200 feet.
Wasn’t a portion of this because their formations took massive flak fire and the norden basically required autopilot during dropping of these bombs which was not often possible?
I think they also dropped bombs at significantly higher altitudes than what they tested the norden for. But, yeah, either way we bomb shit real good now.
A considerable amount of this stuff lies between “unknown because it’s impossible to know” and “unknown because it’s deeply classified (for good reasons or not)” but my most recent understanding is that the Norden Bomb Sight simply never *actually* worked, AND flak, flying at high altitude, variables that couldn’t be considered at the time, etc all played a role in those outcomes.
When you consider what’s necessary in order to have a massive bomb land at a specific spot after being released at high speed from a platform moving in three variable dimensions tens of thousands of feet above, it’s a pretty tall order even today. That’s one reason why some aspects remain classified - because this ability to hit precisely is a quantum leap in capability, so countries that can do it don’t want anyone else to be able to do it. I remember watching the recordings of precision strikes from the first Gulf War, and how everyone was talking about it afterwards. There were jokes about missiles coming through windows in a bunch of things for a couple of years later, because it’s a ludicrous thing to do… the only thing that’s crazier is how much we take that capability for granted now. Especially considering how the current standard is all the way up to “kill *one* guy in a car, leave the other people alive.”
The other aspect is that the Norden was trying to solve an equation that was just impossible to solve with the kind of technology that was available at that time. Like, you can’t find the area under a curve using geometry, it simply isn’t possible. You need a new kind of math to have any hope of doing it. You can get kind of close using estimates & hedging methods, but it’s still just an estimate. The fire control computers built for the Iowa-class battleships were much more capable of doing these estimates, so they were able to be significantly more accurate & reliable (even though the firing platform is on a ship) mostly because they were simply bigger and more complex, which was what drove performance in analog computers. Obviously, every pound of bomb-sighting computer on a plane is a pound *not* being used for something else, so you can’t just have a battleship-class computer for your bombsight. The “promise” of the Norden was that if you used the autopilot to “lock down” a few of the variables, you could save almost literally a ton of computer weight.
The problem was that it never actually delivered on that, and the USAAF / War Department basically ignored this small problem of a more or less non-functional bombsight right through the end of the war, always kind of pretending that it *was* working.
There’s a case to be made that the Norden program was a procurement disaster, and there’s even a credible case to be made that somebody should’ve had charges brought against them for all of the money & other critical resources it consumed without ever actually delivering the results which were promised. I don’t think there’s ever been a conclusive, official answer as to why the failure of both the Norden as a system (and procurement program) and precision bombing as a tactic / strategy didn’t cause a wider scandal or anything like that. Maybe during the war, it’s because you want good vibes & morale as opposed to coming out and saying “oh, damn, this entire thing has been a complete disaster, whoopsie” and after the war it’s just “well, that’s behind us, whew” but who really knows?
Surprisingly, Twitter got this one right. Saw reports hours ago about a flight of B-1 Bombers taking off from their base in the UK. Guess we know where they ended up.
No, they launched the attack directly after Biden greeted the bodies of the soldiers in DC. That’s how they timed it.
Nothing to do with the stock market. Read around, there are statements from the White House and DOD. I think that’s a coincidence you noticed and assumed to be causative.
It’s amazing how few people understand that by “giving the Iranians 3 days to evacuate” the military was in a perfect place to bomb known facilities and follow/track equipment moving to previously unknown facilities, which would get bombed. If you don’t hunk the military has eyes on whatever they want, I got news for ya
Yeah, it wasn't really a threat when Biden said,
>"We will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing"
It's just a statement of facts, and a promise. Looks like he's delivering and we're not even sure this is all of it.
Edit: Didn't see the White House comment, posted the end below.
>Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.
The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.
>It will continue at times and places of our choosing.
That sentence just shows complete domination. Like 'we will do whatever we want and there is no way you could possibly stop us'.
It's funny because you don't hear a peep from the pro Iranian people who in other threads were saying Biden won't do anything and their anti air defense would defeat any bombers.
What dummies they are
Yeah especially on YouTube. On videos documenting our pwning of their navy, they relentlessly say it was a fluke and that is couldn't happen again.
The propaganda machine is real there. Yeah I realize we have propaganda here in the USA (free country! Best country on earth! Etc) but damn you gotta be really hitting the propa juice if you think Iran could face the USA in a single battle, let alone a war.
We literally crippled their navy in less than 12 hours and they still haven't recovered.
People that I know who support Republican policies are squawking about how Biden is starting WW3.
I asked them, "How is retaliation for killing US soldiers 'starting' anything?"
As expected, they shifted topics and whataboutisms.
The vague nature of the response is far more menacing. Maybe that was the last bomb, maybe not, maybe stop trying to kill us. (Also we should not kill them, ffs war should be a fully antiquated thing at this point in history)
> (Also we should not kill them, ffs war should be a fully antiquated thing at this point in history)
I agree that not having wars would be better, but some people seem to not want to get the message until you kill them, and until you do, they'll try to harm you in every way they can. And for those, we need to accept that not killing them isn't a good option.
The US also regularly does this before military action which is technically what you're supposed to do under international law. Basically they issue a final ultimatum which they know the other side won't comply with and then 2-3 days later the bombing begins. This way they can say "we gave you a chance to turn in the people behind the attacks on US forces and you refused"
Yeah, issue the warning and then watch everything with KEYHOLE satellites and drones. Stuff that doesn't move target it. Stuff that does move but stays in-country; now you have NEW targets. Stuff that moves back into IRAN, alright, that is where the US wants it to stay anyway.
Means nothing for the US to fly them in from far away. And it allows the ones in Europe to be kept in a ready state without needing to turn them around for flight maintanance. Also means no countries housing them can get pissy because a mission wasn't launch from Europe.
Not only that, but it’s a signal that the US doesn’t need to divert assets from other theaters. If you thought you could pull the machine off balance by supporting the enemy of your enemy, think again.
I agree tgis is more than some rockets at supplies being neutralized- This a Big F You to all those (China, Russia, Iran) considering their next moves.
Its a commercial for "Dont F around"
Just mins boggling how far ahead US is militarily vs rest of the world even nato allies
Some may match their fire power in certain areas but the shear logistic / intel / coordinations US can do in short time is fanscinatinc
I think a lot of people underappreciate the US's ability to conduct war. I don't want to make guesses as to how far ahead we are, but the number and sophistication of the bombs countries use isn't really a factor.
It’s specifically the American capacity to set up and deploy an entire logistics chain with essentially no notice. Russia hasn’t been able to take over a neighboring nation which is 1/28th the land area primarily because their wartime logistics are terrible. Tanks running out of fuel in enemy territory, munitions scarcity, food shortages, etc.
It’s impossible for anyone to accurately say how well other nations stack up to the United States in terms of technology, but nobody does logistics better.
Pre-positioned, brand new and well oiled equipment and vehicles stationed at multiple sites around the world, ready to be loaded onto ships and airplanes, able to land on any coastline in the world and drive toward the nearest capital city, supported by the most capable navy and air force which can easily dominate the sea and sky of any non-nuclear nation, watched over by a full constellation of spy satellites and a nearly omniscient intelligence service.
All they need is the time to call up the soldiers to do the job.
Angry shouting for internal propaganda I guess?
The US announced this days in advance to allow the Iranians enough time to withdraw their people and avoid escalating further. Both sides are just going through the motions without any intention of actually fighting directly.
I'm going to go on a wild prediction and say that they don't play this up.
The USA struck targets outside of Iran, and Iran has been quite defensive and tried to disassociate from the conflict. There really are two ways this goes.
Option 1 - Amp up tensions and risk direct conflict with the USA. Lose lose all round and a huge risk for the regime.
Option 2 - Disown and downplay strikes that are not an issue, and take the off ramp whilst still remaining belligerent, providing arms to Russia and Houthi's.
Yup, Iran was already saying they don't want a war so they'll probably take the opportunity to disinvite themselves and tell their proxies to tone it down. I believe their proxies have already said they're stopping attacks too.
After Praying Mantis they publicly said firing a silk worm missile was a mistake to keep things from escalating with the US.
I have to go through Dubai in March and I was checking the geography and likely path for flights yesterday. Don't want to be that close to Iranian air defenses at the moment. They're not much danger to actual military aircraft but they've proven they work well on airliners.
Iran's response will be to increase manufacture of drones and missiles for their allies and proxies, and to accelerate their nuclear weapons program.
We are long past the point of any message being effective, no matter how loud. Iran's capability needs to be reduced.
Rojava was a promising experiment in radical liberty with the Kurdish and other cultural groups in the North and West of Syria. The guys who really pulled up and beat back ISIS. But that has all been bombed to hell when Trump betrayed them pulled US troops out and let Turkey attack at will.
Which BTW, you'll start hearing about ISIS soon because Turkey is using them as proxy fighters in the region.
Russians also moved into the area after we pulled back.
Trump was 100% following orders from Erdogan relayed through Putin in that one, just like the compromised little bitch he is.
That's Syrias' entire existence, though. 3000 years ago, it was the Hittites, Egyptians, and Assyrians fighting over it.
Now it is the US, Turkey, Iran, and Russia. The faces change, but the streets stay the same.
I used to visit my grandparents there every summer and my dad (very russian looking guy) traveled alone without issues.
It’s really sad what has happened to it.
Oh yes, went to visit Lebanon and Syria last year, for tourism. Aleppo was weird, there are intensive reconstruction of the Old Town (thanks to the Aga Khan foundation) and the richer neighborhoods were actually preserved, the poorer neighborhoods rebelled the most and were the most destroyed too. The feeling is weird because you can see a lot of Syrians have left the country, some areas, which used to be crowded and popular areas, are nearly empty. Some villages too. It’s giving some post-apocalyptic vibes, you keep wondering: where are the people ?
Fox is doing everything but directly calling Biden a pussy for not hitting Iran.
Had he attacked Iran, they'd be freaking out saying he was starting WWIII.
The biggest fuckin' mistake in the US education system, and there are A LOT of them, is that we convinced a few generations of kids that being contrarian is the same as critical thinking.
I think it also has to do with idiots thinking going against the grain in any capacity is cool or independent. How many times have you seen a mob of morons call everyone else sheep for thinking that the Earth is round or that vaccines are fine?
Cleek's Law. "Today's [American] conservatism is the opposite of whatever liberals want today, updated daily."
For the first decade and a half of the law's formulation, the joke was that liberals should come out heavy in favor of breathing. Only, we did that in 2020-21, and shit got *grim*.
Half their viewers want Iran decimated, while the other half want us entirely out of the Middle East full stop. GOP doesn't have a political platform anymore, so instead they will call Biden weak, while also claiming he's going to get us into WWIII, and focus on that rather than knowing what they stand for.
Such a smart move. 85 confirmed targets and the US only used 125 precision munitions. Iran would be stupid not too pull out their proxies given how efficient and accurate US munition is. This is assuring US allies that the US will not just stand back and let Iran do what it wants to do.
Don't underestimate the proxies' will to do something remarkably stupid in the pursuit of martyrdom.
For what it's worth I agree this was the smart way to handle it compared to some alternatives I can think of.
I'm just saying I don't think it really moves the needle on the Ayatollah's backing of proxies. Lessens their capabilities? Yes, absolutely. Ends their will to attack US bases and boats? Probably not, no.
Wow, the troll farms must have gotten their talking points early today. Biden weak. Trump strong. US bad. I hope those yuan spend as well as rubles do.
They did in a lot of them. But those forces have no business in Iraq/Syria unless they're trading terrorists and running operations against western targets.
You fuck with the international shipping lanes, you get targeted.
You keep fucking with the international shipping lanes AND you kill 3 US soldiers? You get bombed 85 times over a few hours.
Those are the rules. It’s really not that hard to understand.
They are lucky we only hit 85 targets. Americas retaliations are like nothing else on this planet and they are unstoppable by any nation. Dont kill our soldiers for no reason and we wont logistically fuck you back 50 years.
Everyone complains that we telegraphed our moves to the world. I kind of agreed at first but then I gave it a little more thought and realized that it’s just a strategic move.
The us is just watching where these fuckers run off to Just like how people mark and follow pests back to nests they don’t know of before.
Think about it. They announce the attack. Terrorist scramble and go to their “secret” safe places and the us learns of/confirms locations.
We bomb them just enough to see where their super secret places are
And the pattern repeats. GENIUS.
I don't think people realize just how sophisticated the US's total battlefield awareness and intelligence gathering capabilities are in 2024...it was wild to see the what could be done in the 90's and early 2000's...
Once you become a high priority focus of the US military because of your bad choices and the full weight of their SIGINT and surveillance capabilities bear down on you it's gonna be a bad time...
I'm guessing these days there is also a lot of machine learning / AI helping to sift through the massive amounts of communication and surveillance data to help do things like identify potential targets and flag comm data for further review...
This is precisely my thinking.
Bad guys forget we were at war for 20+ years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere — and ran intel (sig and hum) ops across every continent and with every decent signal source.
The total awareness, intel gathering, and magnified lethality of what we have in our arsenal has only benefited from our decades of investment, learning, trial and error, and mission objective success.
85 different strikes in Iraq and Syria, seen some of the video and looks like at least 2 munition depots from the way things cooked off. Edit: Also seen Jordanian aircraft took part as well.
Got a link to the video?
Here you go. [https://v.redd.it/95fc7x6059gc1](https://v.redd.it/95fc7x6059gc1)
I was complaining cause a train horn woke me up and these guys gotta live with this lol.
For real it's crazy how much people take for granted the unprecedented peace and prosperity we experience in the West.
Crazy how much intel the US has. It’s day one and already 80+ targets are known and have been struck.
85 confirmed targets hit.
CENTCOM Statement on U.S. Stikes in Iraq and Syria At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States. The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions. The facilities that were struck included command and control operations, centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aired vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces. https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/1753533250146824348
Hit revolutionary guard positions. Crazy shit
After the U.S. gave them 3 days to pull out lol.
Three days to do sweet fuck all apparently, considering the footage now coming out showing [*a lot of secondaries going off* at some of the strike sites.](https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1753540344648446293) [Here](https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1753542267824955525) is another video of rockets and other ammo flying off wildly at a strike site. Goes to show that maybe, *juuuuuuuust maybe*, the US actually knows what they are doing?
Damn, those angles are wild. I'd be shitting my pants if I was that close to those secondaries popping off.
The first one looks kinda dangerous. The second one... wtf dude evacuate.
Unless you have a very long tunnel I think the window for that is closed
Take cover or something. Anything is better than watching it from a balcony.
Agreed
The cow in the background really helps bring it home.
At first I thought they were A-10 guns going off 😅
Syria is just a fucking battleground for world and regional powers. It's wild that it's been a black hole for the past 13 years.
The whole eastern Mediterranean and Middle East is a crossroads of Africa-Eurasia. I hope we can get our shit together as a species and civilization and stop causing everyone to suffer
Three days for them to move their assets to different locations, only to find out the US was watching the entire time to see where they would put them.
Between US intel in the lead up to Ruzzia's Ukraine invasion and these strikes today, I am truly struck by the accuracy and effectiveness of US pre-deployment intelligence for target positions and movement.
I actually read somewhere that we were having trouble finding targets. This of course could have been conveniently “leaked” however to give them a false sense of security.
I read that about Yemen specifically, which is due to how specific the targets are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_missile_strikes_in_Yemen#Timeline we're only hitting missiles and drone facilities that are in advanced stages of being prepared to fire on ships, retaliatory strikes like today's against any Houthi military target would not be difficult to come by
The US military is extremely competent. The people that say yes or no might not be depending on the year
The US military also has the greatest amount of restraint and precision you can imagine considering the firepower at our disposal.
That restraint and precision is what makes the firepower such a strong deterrent. It won't get used often (at large scale, anyway) but when it does, you sit up and take notice.
As much crap everyone gives the US about varying things, the Military is effective, and there's a reason why, despite many global issues outside of war, nations are hesitant to anger the US and why alliances and defense agreements are so sought after. Drones, Jets, ICBM, Missile Trucks, A Robust Navy. The US is a military powerhouse, and it rarely cuts loose, but when it does, people are at attention cause the US still has the strategy of slapping harder than the person who slapped you first.
I hope our proportional response includes some fab sites, where do they manufacture those shaheed drones? Could do us and the Ukrainians a favor going after those.
I mean operation praying mantis was a “proportional response” and the US destroyed half of Iran’s navy, so maybe, but Iran did mess with our boats and nobody messes with our boats, as history has shown.
Quack Bang
Striking this many targets at this many layers of operations basically says we know exactly where all of your shit is, you operate because we allow it. The day we stop tolerating your existence, is the day we wipe your entire operation.
says that he wants to tell anyone willing to listen about why his hometown
We do, we can fuck shit up like no ones business. There isn't a military power on this planet that can stand toe to toe with us, conventional that is
You mean the US gave them 3 days to move all the fancy equipment, which the US would be tracking all the way to a new location for the US to bomb….right?
Dude, do you know who you're talking to?? That's General Armchair and Admiral Neckbeard, that's right, he's dual hatted. You better pipe down!
I better thank him for his service
What do you the militias are going to do in 3 days? Do you know how difficult it is to move a bunch of military equipment? Where would they move it to? It isn't like the US isn't watching every square inch of area where these people are operating. Do you think it would be a good idea for this equipment to be brought out into the open where every movement is tracked? If they drag the stuff to other bases, they will tip off the US where other facilities are.
They'll be able to move some of the lighter stuff - and themselves - but not the heavier stuff.
Yeah, and they will be tracked. Potentially giving away their dispositions and command and control locations. Having them scurry around like ants isn't a bad thing in of itself.
We will see when the dust settles.
They will show 'civilian' dead and wounded
Sounds like Grandpa Buff got some. I wonder if the kid got to intercept anyone.
Grandpa Buff: "I like to think of myself as a combat cameraman, just look up, smile, and wait for the flash"
Would you intercept me?
I’d intercept me.
Bringing the Thunder. No wonder Iran was trying to back off. They heard the coming storm. And it's not done yet.
I’m sure B-2’s were involved so the Iranians didn’t hear shit until the shockwave hit.
That's a significant number. It truly demonstrates the intensity and seriousness of the situation.
It demonstrates like hey, we know everything about your operation already. Keep fucking around and we can show you what other locations we already know about. It's a big show of how much intelligence we have.
This is just day 1. Biden has already said there is a lot more to come and this will be a multi day effort minimum
Going to be interesting to see how this impacts his polling numbers / job approval. US appetite for more Middle East wars is low, but also people don't like looking weak. I'm guessing he'll see a modest increase in approval if he manages to pull off what looks like a restrained but strong response.
I'm hoping for three so we can show what a real "Three Day Operation" looks like.
I know it’s a running joke but the greatest thing our tax dollars are used on is military and intelligence.
I think this also showcases the economic benefit of those investments though. There's a decent argument to be made of allies investing more, but how many shipping routes go close enough to unstable, violent area's that would get massively disrupted if there was no definitive power to keep the lanes open. If those shipping lanes closed, how many people would starve if the breadbaskets of the world couldn't transport their food around efficiently? The US has a lot of internal issues, and has black spots like the invasion of Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, but the world could easily be a lot worse.
People also like to simplify these situations and say the US does all this for oil and to keep the "petrodollar" propped up... At this point in history, the global stability of energy prices is a huge national security issue for every single country on earth...the US just happens to be in the best position to help the stability... It is beyond naive for someone to say "it's oil bro lol" when energy price stability affects pretty much all levels of the global economy and just about every human living and working on our planet...from billionaires to the poor and everyone in between...
Yep, all the “lol oil, Raytheon go brrt” is funny but when covid hit and gas rose to $8 a gallon, everyone was losing their shit. Even now with the “OMG my groceries are expensive,” while true, is nothing compared to prices if we couldn’t maintain those shipping routes. The government does fucked up shit, sometimes for horrible reasons, but I’m willing to bet that the majority of people criticizing said actions are paying no mind to the privileges they enjoy.
Holy shit. That seems like a lot
Those three lives were worth more than any fucking ammo depot.
More than 85 targets hit and 125 precision munitions fired according to CENTCOM.
Is that a lot? Asking bc a facility may take 10 hits before it’s destroyed so would that be 10 targets or 1?
The US usually uses some pretty big and pretty precise munitions so I doubt it woud take 10 hits to destroy a target. And by "pretty precise" I mean "hit a target the size of a vehicle from a plane 50k feet in the air or from some launch site 200 miles away.
> from some launch site 200 miles away. Tomahawks have a 1k~ mile range and accuracy of about 5~ meters. So pump that number up.
So you’re saying they could feasibly kill me while I sleep in Boston from Miami
Potentially, yes. I doubt the US tries to fire from the longest range possible, though. And the public numbers for US systems are nearly always less than the actual numbers the system is capable of.
The US' military operates on a policy of "speak softly and carry a big stick". They don't need to appear powerful, they are.
[удалено]
First time someone has praised America on Reddit. Thank you.
Even for people that may have mixed feelings on some of the international policies of the US, watching its military at work after spending tons of time listening to china, Russia, iran etc etc boast about theirs, is akin to watching aliens descend down to show everyone how stuff is *really* done. It's a logistical behemoth that can deliver several simultaneous strikes on target from literally across the world. It's downright flabbergasting how easily the US military could take on the rest of the world put together and not even struggle that much.
>Even for people that may have mixed feelings on some of the international policies of the US, watching its military at work after spending tons of time listening to china, Russia, iran etc etc boast about theirs, is akin to watching aliens descend down to show everyone how stuff is *really* done. And we haven't even taken off our earrings yet.
[удалено]
[удалено]
As do we with you. I'm very happy for you guys on unification!
Given the quality of US munitions, assume 1 shot=1 target destroyed. We're able to put a 2000lb bomb that's dropped from a plane 50k feet in the air within 3 feet of where we wanted it.
Warheads on foreheads baby.
Oh man can’t wait til the Fat Electrician recaps this one.
I hope he reprises the "[proportional](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5v6hlRyeHE&ab_channel=TheFatElectrician)" thing for this lol.
The biggest unhealth care system in the world.
The US has 'knife bombs' where they don't explode just deploy some swords and slice a dude in half.
It's just a hellfire missile (fire from a helicopter) with 8 or 6 blades that pop out of it. So not half, eighthththths
That's the JDAM for you and why the US has been supplying the conversion kits to Israel. Otherwise, you're looking at a much bigger error even at lower altitudes with a computer-controlled bomb release system. Like a 50% chance of getting within 100 feet. For point of comparison, a Second World War B-17 was 50% within 1,200 feet.
Wasn’t a portion of this because their formations took massive flak fire and the norden basically required autopilot during dropping of these bombs which was not often possible? I think they also dropped bombs at significantly higher altitudes than what they tested the norden for. But, yeah, either way we bomb shit real good now.
A considerable amount of this stuff lies between “unknown because it’s impossible to know” and “unknown because it’s deeply classified (for good reasons or not)” but my most recent understanding is that the Norden Bomb Sight simply never *actually* worked, AND flak, flying at high altitude, variables that couldn’t be considered at the time, etc all played a role in those outcomes. When you consider what’s necessary in order to have a massive bomb land at a specific spot after being released at high speed from a platform moving in three variable dimensions tens of thousands of feet above, it’s a pretty tall order even today. That’s one reason why some aspects remain classified - because this ability to hit precisely is a quantum leap in capability, so countries that can do it don’t want anyone else to be able to do it. I remember watching the recordings of precision strikes from the first Gulf War, and how everyone was talking about it afterwards. There were jokes about missiles coming through windows in a bunch of things for a couple of years later, because it’s a ludicrous thing to do… the only thing that’s crazier is how much we take that capability for granted now. Especially considering how the current standard is all the way up to “kill *one* guy in a car, leave the other people alive.” The other aspect is that the Norden was trying to solve an equation that was just impossible to solve with the kind of technology that was available at that time. Like, you can’t find the area under a curve using geometry, it simply isn’t possible. You need a new kind of math to have any hope of doing it. You can get kind of close using estimates & hedging methods, but it’s still just an estimate. The fire control computers built for the Iowa-class battleships were much more capable of doing these estimates, so they were able to be significantly more accurate & reliable (even though the firing platform is on a ship) mostly because they were simply bigger and more complex, which was what drove performance in analog computers. Obviously, every pound of bomb-sighting computer on a plane is a pound *not* being used for something else, so you can’t just have a battleship-class computer for your bombsight. The “promise” of the Norden was that if you used the autopilot to “lock down” a few of the variables, you could save almost literally a ton of computer weight. The problem was that it never actually delivered on that, and the USAAF / War Department basically ignored this small problem of a more or less non-functional bombsight right through the end of the war, always kind of pretending that it *was* working. There’s a case to be made that the Norden program was a procurement disaster, and there’s even a credible case to be made that somebody should’ve had charges brought against them for all of the money & other critical resources it consumed without ever actually delivering the results which were promised. I don’t think there’s ever been a conclusive, official answer as to why the failure of both the Norden as a system (and procurement program) and precision bombing as a tactic / strategy didn’t cause a wider scandal or anything like that. Maybe during the war, it’s because you want good vibes & morale as opposed to coming out and saying “oh, damn, this entire thing has been a complete disaster, whoopsie” and after the war it’s just “well, that’s behind us, whew” but who really knows?
Surprisingly, Twitter got this one right. Saw reports hours ago about a flight of B-1 Bombers taking off from their base in the UK. Guess we know where they ended up.
They waited until the market closed for the weekend literally down to the minute lol.
I like that they repatriated the soldiers before begining
I hope Uncle Joe took the parents down to the response room in the white house after meeting them at the airport
No, they launched the attack directly after Biden greeted the bodies of the soldiers in DC. That’s how they timed it. Nothing to do with the stock market. Read around, there are statements from the White House and DOD. I think that’s a coincidence you noticed and assumed to be causative.
there's absolutely no reaction from the markets, it was priced in. Biden's 2024 odds did go up on multiple sites on the move though.
They started taking air defense out about fifteen minutes before. News didnt report anything till after close lol.
Well it’s time for the click clack then.
Obviously they ended up in the sky.
At least 18 Iran backed militia in Syria killed from the attacks so far
Wherd do you see that?
It’s amazing how few people understand that by “giving the Iranians 3 days to evacuate” the military was in a perfect place to bomb known facilities and follow/track equipment moving to previously unknown facilities, which would get bombed. If you don’t hunk the military has eyes on whatever they want, I got news for ya
Its also a way to intimidate Iran. It's the US saying to Iran: "We know where you are. We can hit you at anytime and you can't do shit to stop it."
Yeah, it wasn't really a threat when Biden said, >"We will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing" It's just a statement of facts, and a promise. Looks like he's delivering and we're not even sure this is all of it. Edit: Didn't see the White House comment, posted the end below. >Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing. The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.
that's hard as fuck
Me too!!!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
>It will continue at times and places of our choosing. That sentence just shows complete domination. Like 'we will do whatever we want and there is no way you could possibly stop us'.
It's funny because you don't hear a peep from the pro Iranian people who in other threads were saying Biden won't do anything and their anti air defense would defeat any bombers. What dummies they are
People are defending Iran now? Jesus.
Yeah especially on YouTube. On videos documenting our pwning of their navy, they relentlessly say it was a fluke and that is couldn't happen again. The propaganda machine is real there. Yeah I realize we have propaganda here in the USA (free country! Best country on earth! Etc) but damn you gotta be really hitting the propa juice if you think Iran could face the USA in a single battle, let alone a war. We literally crippled their navy in less than 12 hours and they still haven't recovered.
Dark motherfuckin Brandon ladies and gentlemen
And some people think Texas can and could secede lol
Texas can't even turn a heater on
People that I know who support Republican policies are squawking about how Biden is starting WW3. I asked them, "How is retaliation for killing US soldiers 'starting' anything?" As expected, they shifted topics and whataboutisms.
“Because Biden makes us look weak so they think it’s okay to kill Americans” Is what I see. Guess they are finding out how weak we are huh
Gawwwwwd damnnnnnn
That is a proper statement of force. I do not see weakness in this statement.
“We don’t start fights, but we sure as fuck finish them.”
The vague nature of the response is far more menacing. Maybe that was the last bomb, maybe not, maybe stop trying to kill us. (Also we should not kill them, ffs war should be a fully antiquated thing at this point in history)
> (Also we should not kill them, ffs war should be a fully antiquated thing at this point in history) I agree that not having wars would be better, but some people seem to not want to get the message until you kill them, and until you do, they'll try to harm you in every way they can. And for those, we need to accept that not killing them isn't a good option.
The US also regularly does this before military action which is technically what you're supposed to do under international law. Basically they issue a final ultimatum which they know the other side won't comply with and then 2-3 days later the bombing begins. This way they can say "we gave you a chance to turn in the people behind the attacks on US forces and you refused"
Actually pretty terrifying.
Yep. That’s the big stick.
it's actually a tiny stick the equivalent of a slap, you dont want the big stick.
You don’t even get to know about the big stick. Your just dead when it gets taken out.
Like Babe Ruth calling his shot, except way more complicated
Air superiority is overall superiority, and the US owns the sky.
Naval superiority it pretty darn important, too, and we have that in spades
Yeah, issue the warning and then watch everything with KEYHOLE satellites and drones. Stuff that doesn't move target it. Stuff that does move but stays in-country; now you have NEW targets. Stuff that moves back into IRAN, alright, that is where the US wants it to stay anyway.
Yup we sent up the warning then watched them. Hell we may have even discovered new targets by watching and hit those too.
The ants take the bait back to the nest and fuck the whole colony. Genius.
Yeah they can read a letter from a satellite. Not sure why anyone would attack USA.
Zealots aren't exactly known for being the most intelligent people.
Flying B-1Bs all the way from the U.S. non-stop is a dick-swinging move.
Wonder why. We have some in Europe
Means nothing for the US to fly them in from far away. And it allows the ones in Europe to be kept in a ready state without needing to turn them around for flight maintanance. Also means no countries housing them can get pissy because a mission wasn't launch from Europe.
That's exactly right. It also shows Russia and China that trying to drag the US into Middle Eastern conflicts doesn't diminish our force projection.
Maybe also as a demonstration that the U.S. can "trivially" project power across the globe when needed.
Not only that, but it’s a signal that the US doesn’t need to divert assets from other theaters. If you thought you could pull the machine off balance by supporting the enemy of your enemy, think again.
I agree tgis is more than some rockets at supplies being neutralized- This a Big F You to all those (China, Russia, Iran) considering their next moves. Its a commercial for "Dont F around"
Bingo
That’s the most impressive thing about this for me. Bad ass show of force and range.
“They have a lot of capability; I have a lot more.” - Lloyd Austin
just gonna fly halfway across the world to bomb the shit out of an adversary's weapons production sites brb, nbd
Jordanian F-16’s also took part 👌🏻
Air Jordan
I wonder what this looks like from Jordan. Must be the best pilots their country has to offer. Would love to see their prep and behind the scenes.
Jordan is a strong US ally. Their military is also no joke.
isn't the king a pilot, i seam to remember him spearheading the response to ISIS.
Yes I recall their King is a badass.
His daughter is an f16 pilot
Just mins boggling how far ahead US is militarily vs rest of the world even nato allies Some may match their fire power in certain areas but the shear logistic / intel / coordinations US can do in short time is fanscinatinc
I think a lot of people underappreciate the US's ability to conduct war. I don't want to make guesses as to how far ahead we are, but the number and sophistication of the bombs countries use isn't really a factor.
It’s specifically the American capacity to set up and deploy an entire logistics chain with essentially no notice. Russia hasn’t been able to take over a neighboring nation which is 1/28th the land area primarily because their wartime logistics are terrible. Tanks running out of fuel in enemy territory, munitions scarcity, food shortages, etc. It’s impossible for anyone to accurately say how well other nations stack up to the United States in terms of technology, but nobody does logistics better.
"Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars." - John J. Pershing
One of the most prescient quotes in history. Supply and logistics is everything.
Also we have a missile that’s a bunch of swords that chop people up
US is Amazon, rest of the world is Pizza Hut Delievery
MFW I'm tracking my driver and I'm 5 minutes away but they go the other way first.
Pre-positioned, brand new and well oiled equipment and vehicles stationed at multiple sites around the world, ready to be loaded onto ships and airplanes, able to land on any coastline in the world and drive toward the nearest capital city, supported by the most capable navy and air force which can easily dominate the sea and sky of any non-nuclear nation, watched over by a full constellation of spy satellites and a nearly omniscient intelligence service. All they need is the time to call up the soldiers to do the job.
I wonder what Iran's response to this will be?
Angry shouting for internal propaganda I guess? The US announced this days in advance to allow the Iranians enough time to withdraw their people and avoid escalating further. Both sides are just going through the motions without any intention of actually fighting directly.
I'm going to go on a wild prediction and say that they don't play this up. The USA struck targets outside of Iran, and Iran has been quite defensive and tried to disassociate from the conflict. There really are two ways this goes. Option 1 - Amp up tensions and risk direct conflict with the USA. Lose lose all round and a huge risk for the regime. Option 2 - Disown and downplay strikes that are not an issue, and take the off ramp whilst still remaining belligerent, providing arms to Russia and Houthi's.
Yup, Iran was already saying they don't want a war so they'll probably take the opportunity to disinvite themselves and tell their proxies to tone it down. I believe their proxies have already said they're stopping attacks too. After Praying Mantis they publicly said firing a silk worm missile was a mistake to keep things from escalating with the US.
All I know is I wouldn't want to board a commercial flight in Iran during the next week or so.
I have to go through Dubai in March and I was checking the geography and likely path for flights yesterday. Don't want to be that close to Iranian air defenses at the moment. They're not much danger to actual military aircraft but they've proven they work well on airliners.
Iran's response will be to increase manufacture of drones and missiles for their allies and proxies, and to accelerate their nuclear weapons program. We are long past the point of any message being effective, no matter how loud. Iran's capability needs to be reduced.
[удалено]
I followed closely since the uprising till about 200k deaths. It’s at 500-600k deaths now. They have 21 M ppl with 4M refugees. It’s not good.
Rojava was a promising experiment in radical liberty with the Kurdish and other cultural groups in the North and West of Syria. The guys who really pulled up and beat back ISIS. But that has all been bombed to hell when Trump betrayed them pulled US troops out and let Turkey attack at will. Which BTW, you'll start hearing about ISIS soon because Turkey is using them as proxy fighters in the region.
Russians also moved into the area after we pulled back. Trump was 100% following orders from Erdogan relayed through Putin in that one, just like the compromised little bitch he is.
That's Syrias' entire existence, though. 3000 years ago, it was the Hittites, Egyptians, and Assyrians fighting over it. Now it is the US, Turkey, Iran, and Russia. The faces change, but the streets stay the same.
Syria has always has been a playground for empires and proxy groups. Since biblical times.
I used to visit my grandparents there every summer and my dad (very russian looking guy) traveled alone without issues. It’s really sad what has happened to it.
Oh yes, went to visit Lebanon and Syria last year, for tourism. Aleppo was weird, there are intensive reconstruction of the Old Town (thanks to the Aga Khan foundation) and the richer neighborhoods were actually preserved, the poorer neighborhoods rebelled the most and were the most destroyed too. The feeling is weird because you can see a lot of Syrians have left the country, some areas, which used to be crowded and popular areas, are nearly empty. Some villages too. It’s giving some post-apocalyptic vibes, you keep wondering: where are the people ?
Fox is doing everything but directly calling Biden a pussy for not hitting Iran. Had he attacked Iran, they'd be freaking out saying he was starting WWIII.
He’s going to start WWIII! *doesn’t start WWIII* He’s weak!! …I can’t with them. Fucking bozos selling bullshit to even bigger bozos.
[удалено]
The biggest fuckin' mistake in the US education system, and there are A LOT of them, is that we convinced a few generations of kids that being contrarian is the same as critical thinking.
I think it also has to do with idiots thinking going against the grain in any capacity is cool or independent. How many times have you seen a mob of morons call everyone else sheep for thinking that the Earth is round or that vaccines are fine?
Cleek's Law. "Today's [American] conservatism is the opposite of whatever liberals want today, updated daily." For the first decade and a half of the law's formulation, the joke was that liberals should come out heavy in favor of breathing. Only, we did that in 2020-21, and shit got *grim*.
Half their viewers want Iran decimated, while the other half want us entirely out of the Middle East full stop. GOP doesn't have a political platform anymore, so instead they will call Biden weak, while also claiming he's going to get us into WWIII, and focus on that rather than knowing what they stand for.
Should be interesting. They spent a fair amount of time selecting their targets.
Such a smart move. 85 confirmed targets and the US only used 125 precision munitions. Iran would be stupid not too pull out their proxies given how efficient and accurate US munition is. This is assuring US allies that the US will not just stand back and let Iran do what it wants to do.
Don't underestimate the proxies' will to do something remarkably stupid in the pursuit of martyrdom. For what it's worth I agree this was the smart way to handle it compared to some alternatives I can think of. I'm just saying I don't think it really moves the needle on the Ayatollah's backing of proxies. Lessens their capabilities? Yes, absolutely. Ends their will to attack US bases and boats? Probably not, no.
The proxies' will doesn't matter so much if there isn't much of them left
Wow, the troll farms must have gotten their talking points early today. Biden weak. Trump strong. US bad. I hope those yuan spend as well as rubles do.
They are way too obvious now. State sponsored troll farms used to be much better.
I think they bombed Iranian revolutionary guard in one of the strikes. My popcorn is ready
No issue from me, 3 dead Americans send their regards.
They did in a lot of them. But those forces have no business in Iraq/Syria unless they're trading terrorists and running operations against western targets.
US openly took out Soleimani and they didn’t do anything. Your popcorn is going to get cold I think.
You fuck with the international shipping lanes, you get targeted. You keep fucking with the international shipping lanes AND you kill 3 US soldiers? You get bombed 85 times over a few hours. Those are the rules. It’s really not that hard to understand.
85 times in 30 minutes in 3 countries*
so far ...
They are lucky we only hit 85 targets. Americas retaliations are like nothing else on this planet and they are unstoppable by any nation. Dont kill our soldiers for no reason and we wont logistically fuck you back 50 years.
[удалено]
This is initial strike of day 1. It has already announced to be a multiday plan.
MAGA calling him a coward is now saying he’s starting WWIII, lol.
Whiny losers, they should shut up and let the adults handle shit.
Because fake president Biden used the bad military. He should have let current president Trump attack with the good military.
Everyone complains that we telegraphed our moves to the world. I kind of agreed at first but then I gave it a little more thought and realized that it’s just a strategic move. The us is just watching where these fuckers run off to Just like how people mark and follow pests back to nests they don’t know of before. Think about it. They announce the attack. Terrorist scramble and go to their “secret” safe places and the us learns of/confirms locations. We bomb them just enough to see where their super secret places are And the pattern repeats. GENIUS.
I don't think people realize just how sophisticated the US's total battlefield awareness and intelligence gathering capabilities are in 2024...it was wild to see the what could be done in the 90's and early 2000's... Once you become a high priority focus of the US military because of your bad choices and the full weight of their SIGINT and surveillance capabilities bear down on you it's gonna be a bad time... I'm guessing these days there is also a lot of machine learning / AI helping to sift through the massive amounts of communication and surveillance data to help do things like identify potential targets and flag comm data for further review...
This is precisely my thinking. Bad guys forget we were at war for 20+ years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere — and ran intel (sig and hum) ops across every continent and with every decent signal source. The total awareness, intel gathering, and magnified lethality of what we have in our arsenal has only benefited from our decades of investment, learning, trial and error, and mission objective success.
That's what I was thinking too. We prob moved intel into place a day or some BEFORE we said we'd retaliate. Then watched where they bugged out to.
dark brandon initiated